Good news for Central govt staff, pensioners

The Union Cabinet has decided to increase the Dearness Allowance (DA) and Dearness Relief (DR)of the central government employees and pensioners by 11%. The decision was taken in a meeting of the Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi, writes ETV Bharat's Deputy News Editor Krishnanand Tripathi.

New Delhi:In a major decision that will bring relief to more than 1.13 million central government employees and pensioners, a meeting of the Union Cabinet presided by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Wednesday decided to increase the Dearness Allowance (DA) to the central government employees and Dearness Relief (DR) to the pensioners by 11%. “The DA and DR of central government employees and pensioners have been increased from 17% of their basic salary and pension to 28%,” Anurag Thakur, Minister for Information and Broadcasting, told reporters after the meeting. Thakur said it will benefit over 48,00,000 central government employees and more than 65,00,000 central government pensioners. “It’s a substantial relief,” said the minister.

The increase will be effective from July 1 this year. Last year, the central government had frozen the payment of three additional instalments Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief to the government employees and pensioners due to the unprecedented situation created by the Covid-19 global pandemic led to a contraction of over 7% in the country’s GDP in the last fiscal.

These instalments were due on January 1, 2020, July 1, 2020 and January 1, 2021. In a press note, the government said the increase reflects the additional instalments arising in January and July last year and the instalment arising in January this year. However, the rate of Dearness Allowance and Dearness Relief for January 2020 to June 2021 period will remain at 17%. The decision will have a financial implication of nearly Rs 34,000 crore per year for the government exchequer.